Chapter 2: The performance and Claire
Tonight was the first performance since the re-opening of the Opera Populaire and Christine's stomach felt as if insects had been injected inside of it.
She had agreed to attend the first performance with her husband, the Vicomte d'Chagny – Raoul, after some persuasion and now the there was ten minutes until the carriage arrived, and he was nowhere to be seen.
She began to pace around the living room again. Where is he? She wondered. As if it wasn't enough for her to be dragged back into that wretched place again, where her whole life had changed.
Her thoughts still strayed to the Phantom of the Opera. To the night when he released her from his spell.
Christine knew she had made the right decision but she never wanted to see murder. People she had known most of her life had died, and just when she thought happiness was around the corner, Erik, her angel had been hunted down and killed. No matter how many singing sensations had crossed the Opera, Erik had the voice of the angels, and to think she would never hear it again, and it broke her heart.
Where is he?
He watched as the boy entered the house, on the rooftop of the house opposite. He better succeed. Failure was not an option to him. The boy could not be seen through the window. They must be in the hallway still.
He looked around the streets at the crowds of people. No doubt on their way to the Opera. Dressed in their velvets and silks, while my only clothing rots like my soul on the streets of Paris.
He sighed. Tonight would be the first night he would see Christine since the awful incident in the catacombs. He looked down at his caked fingernails and cringed. He had been living on the streets for weeks now. It was like being back at the circus, only this time he didn't have to be whipped every few minutes. I'll tell you what, Vimcomte, we shall swap places, and YOU can live on the streets, while I lay down next to Christine – how does that sound?
He stomped on some moss near his left foot. What could possibly be taking so long?
He needed Claire – perhaps more so than Christine. Why must women rule my body and soul?
After two more minutes he became very impatient, and left the rooftop. Claire can wait – time to see my Angel.
Raoul knocked at the woman's door. Oh why am I doing this? Go home. Just leave. The Phantom will not be the wiser. Who am I fooling? I suspect him watching right now.
Just then the door opened- revealing a woman on the other side. A worn face,
and black clothes:
"Madame Giry!" Raoul exclaimed.
"Quiet you fool, get inside."
Raoul quickly entered the room.
"But Madame, your daughter thinks you are ill, no one has seen you for weeks! Why this sudden action? What has happened?" Raoul words fell upon each other.
"Why do you think?" She asked, "HE has been watching me. Wanting me to do his bidding. But I cannot Monsieur; I would surely be hung for it. He is on his own now."
Raoul looked at the floor; "No he isn't Madame. He will never be on his own." He gave her a meaningful look.
"YOU! You are helping the ghost?" She gasped.
"I feared Christine's safety!" He shouted at her; "I love her, I wont let any harm come to her!"
Madame Giry shook Raoul; "You fool! You have left her alone in your house?"
Raoul stopped struggling from her grasp and went limp.
"Christine. Oh God."
To be continued…